Market: Strong prices for Mercedes, fast Fords and 2CV

‘Pagoda’ 230SL heads a healthy £1.52m CCA auction – but it was 1980s Fords and a £10k Citroën that showed the strongest prices

An original 1967, right-hand drive, Pagoda-top 230SL Mercedes-Benz (above), with a seldom found five-speed manual gearbox, cleared its top estimate to sell for £50,050 at CCA’s June sale at the Warwickshire Event Centre. This surprise result headed a price list worth over £1.52m, featuring 112 cars.

Although 59 of the house record 171 cars consigned for the Midlands auction went unsold, the 66% sale rate was more than par for the current course. The average amount spent at the sale breached a market-healthy £13,615 per classic.

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The head-to-head clash with Bonhams’ specialist sale for Aston Martins, several counties away, didn't impact on turnout at this all-makes auction, which was attended by online surfers from as far away as Australia, Indonesia and the USA.

The sale wasn't far from the Healey birthplace in nearby Warwick, and appropriately a 1960 Austin-Healey 3000 BT7 (below) with aluminium body panels, hard-top and works-spec engine, and the subject of a fully-documented restoration, sold to an internet bidder for £49,500 – virtually the lower estimate figure.

A second generation Audi Quattro Turbo 10-valve (below) with the larger and torquier five-cylinder motor had been glued to the road for 30 years and 43,500 miles. In impractical, but oh-so-1988 Pearl Effect White Metallic, the international rally dominator was knocked down to a bidder in the room for £38,500. Far from surprising, seeing the recent market trends, but that's £8500 more than the guide.

Surprisingly, it was not the 2010 one-owner 6755-mile Focus RS that led the fast Fords with its £30,360 performance, but a less WRC-looking 1983 Escort RS1600i. The one-owner 8000-miler with Turbo Technics conversion caused a bidding war to break out on several phones until the hammer fell at £42,000, costing the winner £46,200 with premium. That's £11,200 more than the pre-sale estimate at this, the biggest CCA sale yet.

Another market-significant valuation was the close to top estimate £19,250 paid for a 1980 Fiesta Supersport (below) with 27,478 warranted mileage, one of the 3000 that employed the 1300 Sport as the basis for a Limited Edition loaded with accessories from the Series X catalogue.

By contrast, a 1990 Escort XR3i that had been preserved in storage from 2005 to 2016 was acquired for £9020, and a £1600 below estimate £3410 was accepted for a sound, but scruffy 1988 Fiesta XR2 Mk2 ‘original’ for improvement.

A 1983 Talbot Sunbeam Lotus S2 (below) appeared cosmetically sharp since a recent restoration, although one of the doors would not shut properly. The S2 still realised £19,800 though, which was just under the guide and more than the £17,050 paid for a 1988 Lancia Delta HF Integrale 8v that had been glass-out repainted. A ripple-bonneted 2CV of 1954 vintage in Gris Fonce so beloved by the French peasantry headed down under to Oz after £10,340 had been bid.

Believed to be one of the earliest VW Golfs to survive, a Golf L in unique (for 1976, at least) Ocean Blue with 22,889 miles of fully charted service history made the required £10,120.

One of the rarest everyman classics meanwhile, an alloy-bodied 1995 Brooklands Ace packing a Ford 5.0 V8 (AC made 46 of them) sold for £25,300 – and one of the most grunt-worthy items on the CCA menu, a 1994 TVR 5-Litre Griffith that had been dry-stored for 22 years was unleashed for £21,120.